heard the pop. she couldn't say what kind of a noise it was. >> like somebody was struck or a gun shot? >> as if he was struck, that's what she said. >> the attack happened at 2:30 tuesday morning. d.c. police say the victim was robbed of personal belongings, knocked to the ground and further assaulted. they say he suffered minor injuries. >> this is a wonderful neighborhood. >> police say they are looking for two suspects. one armed with a handgun. >> this is a 400 block of north carolina. you might recall that back in august, four blocks away on north carolina, 29-year-old thomas maslin was robbed, beaten, and left unconscious on his front porch on capitol hill. >> and he is slowly starting to respond. >> thomas, a husband and father was found unconscious and badly beaten on the porch of a home in the 700 block of north carolina, not far from this capitol hill apartment. >> i actually was writing him messages and reading them to

him and he gave me the thumb's up that he understood. >> persons of interest, their words were seen in this video trying to use s credit card at an exxon station on pennsylvania avenue shortly after the robbery i and assault. investigators say they have not connected the two assaults and robberies. >> i remember the first guy that went through the incident and saw it happened again. i mean, we have to do something about this, because it comes to a point where someone could get killed. >> you think there's a connection between this? >> yes, we think so. >> bruce johnson, 9news now. >> we did ask the d.c. police to talk about these attacks and whether they are related. and no. on now to the democratic national convention. here's a live look inside the time warner cable arena. former president, bill clinton is the headliner tonight of day two of the dnc. but there is a major change to tomorrow's schedule and where president obama will accept his

nomination. randall pinkston is in charlotte with that. >> crews are tearing down the stage at bank of america stadium where president obama was supposed to accept his party's nomination. the threat of severe weather forced convention planners to move thursday's program inside. >> oh my gosh. you don't know how many disappointed people there are. there are so many people all over the country that are coming down for that event. >> the president arrived in charlotte this afternoon and will now speak from the time warner cable arena. >> where day two of a convention is already underway. >> this election, please join me in standing by barack obama. help our president show that in america, freedom equality are for all of us all of the time. >> bill clinton will be here tonight to place president obama's name and nomination for a second term. >> bill clinton carries a lot of weight in this country.

and this day in the game, we need all the help we can get. >> focus on the economy. >> i think that the person people, when it comes to the economy, have faith in bill clinton. i think his approach and policies are similar to president obama's. >> first lady michelle obama is also working to motivate the base, speaking with key groups, including the african american and hispanic caucuses. >> randall pinkston, charlotte. >> that venue change could be thousands of people disappointed. folks who volunteer for his campaign was given passes to the speech and now being asked to take home and take part in a phone conference. coming up, virginia congress member, gerry connolly will join us live from the convention to give us his take, including in his competitive state of virginia. democrats as you just heard are obviously worked up and l excited about bill clinton's big speech tonight, but gop

vice presidential nominee says there's a big difference between obama and clinton. >> president clinton worked with republicans in congress to have a budget agreement to cut spending. president obama, a gusher of new spending, and only those of us who offered solutions. >> ryan in iowa today hammering away at the president's record. mitt romney was working the crowd at a building supply store up in new hampshire. this week the gop nominee says he has been busy preparing for next month's presidential debate. new information on that close call involving three jets out of reagan national. the planes flew too close to each other in the skies over reagan. well, in a new report out today from the ntsb, investigators describe a chaotic scene inside that tower which left some controllers rattled. 14 page report concluded miscommunication is to blame. >> a suspected dog fighting

ring uncovered in the alexandria section of fairfax county. andrea mccarren was the only reporter on the scene as police collected evidence and seized the animals from a residential home. >> this pit bull puppy out of the rambler at 4511 tipton lane in alexandria, one of eight puppies and adult dogs seized when police executed a sealed search warrant on the home. the owner was recently arrested on an unrelated charge and released. some of the dogs appeared traumatized and were carried out by animal control officers. others looked thin, but were able to walk out on their own. many had been rescued from padlocked cages. police also confiscated what appeared to be dog training equipment. including three treadmills, harnesses, heavy chains, and a device to forcibly mate two aggressive dogs. a brand-new black porsche sat in the driveway as officers carried out bags of evidence.

neighbors peered out their windows, but said nothing. the dogs are now considered part of an on going criminal investigation. for now, they will be examined and treated by a veterinarian if necessary before their futures are determined. in alexandria, andrea mccarren, 9news now. >> who was the owner of that home? police are not yet releasing the suspect's name. he is just being charged with being an unfit animal owner. depending on the outcome, he could face charges. virginia's late -- closed to swimmers. this happened yesterday about 6:00 p.m. that woman was wrapping up her evening swim and people who came to her rescue had to battle the beaver for a half an hour before they killed it. community association says the lake will remain closed until they figure out if there are other rabid beavers. the woman is expected to be okay. we do have a few showers

popping up in parts of our area. we have a lot of humidity in all of our area. topper, what's the deal? >> you can cut the humidity with a butter knife. good news, the showers are not near nats stadium. let me show you where they are. one that has been hammering fauquier county, is dipping down to the south and east. about to cross 95 toward fredericksburg. one popped up in the last, really 20 minutes, kind of straddling the river between loudoun county and upper montgomery county. trouble is, they have heavy rain. we'll zoom into this one. you can see east of culpeper, south of warrenton and going across 95. if you are between quantico and fredericksburg, you're going to have some hefty rain to go through on i-95 southbound. 84 in leesburg. humidity, it feels like it's 88 and 90. for tonight, early heavy thunderstorm possible. otherwise just muggy, low 68 to 74. we'll come back and talk about how long it's going to be tropical around the metro area and we have a cold front on the

map, which is going to change forecast for the weekend. we'll have that, too. >> thank you, top. right after the break, how some crooks forced a woman to rob her own bank. plus, why peyton manning's jersey is sidelined in one school district. i wonder why.

i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. mitt romney's position on women's health...it's dangerous. vo:mitt romney and paul ryan would get rid of planned parenthood funding. and allow employers to deny coverage for cancer screenings and birth control. we can't afford to let him take away our choices...

to take away basic health care. vo: both backed proposals to outlaw abortions...even in cases of rape and incest. i don't think that women's health issues have faced a crisis like this in decades. a bizarre bank robbery out of l.a. a woman says two masked gunmen kid napped her, strap add pipe bomb to her belly and forced her to rob her own bank. she was forced to throw it out the back. police are looking for these guys. football fans who want to show their love to peyton manning cannot wear their jerseys inside some colorado schools. the number 18 is considered to

represent gang affiliations. the district bans a handful of other numbers as well. it's a policy that has been on the books for three years now. topper shutt will be along in a few minutes with your full forecast. plus, gerry connolly answering our tough questions live from the 2012 democratic national convention. i woke up with this horrible rash on my right side.

an intense burning sensation like somebody had set it on fire. and the doctor said, cindie, you have shingles. he said, you had chickenpox when you were a little girl... i said, yes, i did. i don't think anybody ever thinks they're going to get shingles. but it happened to me. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com

the accused gunman behind a deadly shooting spree in

montreal is in police custody tonight. the 62-year-old allegedly opened fire at a political rally at midnight. pauline was not hurt. the heavy set suspect in the blue bathrobe could be heard saying the english are being woken up as he was being put into a police car. the cleanup is underway as they rocked that country early this morning. two people are dead. one of them suffering a heart attack in all the madness. some homes collapsed and a landslide or a number of them blocked roads. one official says costa rica hasn't seen an earthquake like that in 50 years. >> let's take a live look at the democratic national convention. locally, the senator and congressman will have their turn to speak tonight at the floor of the convention. the big headliner is former president, bill clinton, and one of those eagerly awaiting that speech is virginia's very own congress member, gerry connolly. thank you for joining us.

i know a lot of your constituents in virginia are just the folks you hope president clinton will bring along with his message tonight. >> we're looking forward to hearing from bill clinton. we think he's going to do the validation that only he can do. and he's going to take the case to the republicans. >> now when you say the validation, do you think president obama needs th speech? some ways to vouch for his policies from a president who has had more economic success than president obama has. >> no, i wouldn't frame it that way. i think it helps. i think it helps to remind waiverring voters of what a mess president obama was handed and all that president obama has done to clean up that mess. >> at this point, we remember president clinton talking about try triangulation. but does this mean that mr. obama, by handing president

clinton such a prime spot, is moving more toward the middle? >> i heard president obama has governed from the middle. very much in the spirit of bill clinton. we can't be distracted or fooled by the demonization of the republicans in congress these four years. >> now i'm looking at your state, for example, and just like everywhere else, the right way, wrong way numbers are not good. the majority of people say hey, the country is going in the wrong direction. how do you convince those folks waiverring that they need to rehire president obama, as it were. >> well, i think we have to take care. the right direction, wrong direction numbers have been off for the better part of a decade now. the numbers you have to look at are approval rating and head to head in virginia for almost the entirety of the last 12 months.

president obama has maintained high approval and maintained a lead over mitt romney or any other republican. he maintains that lead today. >> at the same time, he has been unable to get to 50% and the conventional wisdom is, an incumbent that can't get to 50% will lose because at the end, undecided send a break for the challenger. are you ready for the president in that regard? >> no, this is the reset. this is the start of the fall campaign. this convention. and i think between bill clinton and the president himself, that tag team is going to help reset the narrative of this campaign. and people are going to be reminded of the achievement and the overwelming responsibility he was handed. just four years ago. i think that's going to be a convincing message. >> we will find out just how convincing it is gerry

connolly, thank you for your time. we appreciate it. >> great to be with you. thank you. closer to home, we are tracking popup showers. topper shutt is outside right now. not coming into town, but making a mess out of town. >> a couple dark clouds showing up in parts of the northeast part of town. this is our weather cam. and a couple showers are getting closer to the nats stadium. 84 downtown. look at the dew point. mid 70s. that is miserable. relative humidity over 70%. that is high for this time of day. pressure on the rise, 29.81 inches of mercury. some good news with the pressure. this storm has been hammering southern fauquier county. now peeling off to the south and to the east. it's going to cross 95 between quantico and also fredericksburg. but heavy rain right now just south of quantico, down toward stafford. there's another little storm that kind of cropped up. we'll show you this on a different view. has some red and yellow in it.

almost an inch per hour. but still, between stafford and fredericksburg, get ready for heavy rain. don't see any hail, but i see heavy rain over the next hour, hour and a half. we'll move northward and this cropped up. this moved over the river from our friends in loudoun county. kind of stretches from parts of loudoun county into montgomery county. it is light right now, although moderate rain showing up on the virginia side. this is drifting off to the east as well. should stay east and eventually cross i-270. those are the only two storms we are following right now. where will this go? it should weaken across river road, across falls road, just go north of potomac. right now the storms are north and south of the stadium. that's the way we like them. 85 great falls. 83 in vienna. 86 in college park. 84 in bowie. so still tropical and unsettled. a few storms early tonight. odds are in favor of the nats

game. even hotter tomorrow. i guess the good news, the silver lining, the morning commute will be dry on thursday morning. so, an early heavy thunderstorm tonight, otherwise muggy, 68 to 74. we'll have patchy fog again after midnight, especially in those areas receiving showers right now. warm and humid, temperatures in the 70s and 80s and by afternoon, partly cloudy, hot and humid. scattered storms, some could be hefty. high temperatures around 90. it will feel more like 95. now the next three days, we're going to keep tomorrow code yellow. a few storms, 90 on thursday. we're going to go to a code green on friday with an isolated storm, but hot, 91. and scattered storms on saturday and that's good news because well, that will set the stage for a nice weekend. talked about this yesterday, derek, we cleared it out on monday. didn't clear it out yesterday. now we are clearing it out again. saturday and sunday looks great. sunshine near 80. then sunshine on wednesday with temperatures generally in the

low 80s. that's a nice finish. >> the arrival of the fall weather has not come soon enough. >> indeed it is. yes. we'll be back in a minute. we want to hear what you think. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back.

well in the mail bag tonight, we have hank williams, jr. he unleashed yet another raid. he said and we quote, we have a muslim for a president who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays and we hate him. that brought a bit of a cheer from the crowd, but no cheering from marcia who says it's

unfortunate that channel 9 gives time to air ignorant statements from hank williams. what about free speech? has freedom of speech gone away? i don't think so. or we are allowed freedom of speech as long as we don't defend anyone or allow freedom of speech from inside a closet. if he thinks it, he can say it. but mike from culpeper x virginia, says freedom of speech has some limitations. as a newscaster, it is not your place or any other newscaster to either agree or disagree, mock or otherwise question his or any other american's statement. it is to report the news without bias. i watched you and will continue to do so and i consider you an honest and forthright person. the voice you used in this story did not sound quite right. okay, i thank you for the kind words, but i also know we all have opinions about our

politicians. you should make them known inside mcginty's mail bag. please don't forget to include your name and where you're writing us from. that is our report. i'll be back here at 11:00 along with anita and topper. we'll have the latest on the democratic national convention. log on any time to wusa9.com. we'll see you a bit later. bye bye. president clinton: this election to me is about which... candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan.

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now, "entertainment tonight," the worldwide leader in entertainment news. tom cruise and the scientology girlfriend search? the fallout from the "vanity fair" expose as the author defends her story. >> my job is to report the truths. >> was this actress grilled about her sex life before meeting tom? her connection to george clooney. and what katie allegedly didn't know. >> there had been a very elaborate auditioning process to find him a soul mate. how the women behind the candidates compare. the speeches. the fashion face-off as michelle's dress designer shares style secrets. kirstie alley weighs in on this season of "dancing with the stars." >> i'm starting of